Catalyst 2960X-48LPS-L Switch failed to boot

[tanner.zaitt]

Hello all,
I am with an issue.
The device is  Catalyst 2960X-48LPS-L Switch
The old ios is 15.0.2-EX5.
The new ios is 15.2.7E3 MD.
I tried to update it with the new ios image but booting the new image is failed.
I don't have console access....
I did these things:
1 copy tftp://192.168.1.2/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin flash:
2 verify /md5 c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
3 Conf t
4 boot system flash:c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
5 exit
6 copy running-config startup-config
7 reload
And I lost the connection to the device.
The new image is in the flash and the old image is in the flash.
What is the procedure to unbreak the switch?

Maybe:

Ensure the switch is powered off and locate the Mode button as shown below?

Whilst holding down the Mode button power up the switch ensuring the mode button stays depressed.

You need to wait between 30-40 seconds or if watching the console until the text USB Console INIT appears, let go of the mode button when you see this and it will then drop you into the switch: prompt

Once you are at the switch: prompt enter the command

flash_init

Then at the next prompt enter

dir flash:
And I should see the new and the old ios image there I am right?
How I can change the boot to the old image to fix the device?
Switch: set BOOT flash:/old-image.bin
Switch: boot

And now it should boot successfully with the old image.
And in the normal operating mode of the switch, I should run again 
3 Conf t
4 boot system flash:c2960x-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5.bin
5 exit
6 copy running-config startup-config
7 reload
Please Could you confirm?
Thank you in advance.

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@tanner.zaitt wrote:

I tried to update it with the new ios image but booting the new image is failed.
I don't have console access....

---

I want to see the complete boot-up process to be able to determine what is going on.

[balaji.bandi]

At this stage hard to suggest until we get information on what went wrong with the update. to do other steps, someone needs to connect the console. when someone connects the console to the device. power off the device and power on, post the boot process

post dir output

[tanner.zaitt]

Hello all, I couldn't access the console to see what is happening during the upgrade or after the upgrade and booting process....
Just I am forced to upgrade all Cisco devices in the remote site remotely to keep the best practices for security reasons.....
And I do it with closed eyes using SSH session, just anyone in the remote site doesn't love to wait with laptop and console cable and provide you remote access to the console from the Telecommunication Rooms...
In the end, just unplugging and plugging the power supply cables helped us to boot successfully the devices.
I did see in the release notes after upgrade issues with Tacacs servers.
But in my scenario few switches after the upgrade, the radius authentification fails.
And to fix this issue we should reconfigure the radius.


To check the behavior of the updated switches I reboot them with reload and I didn't see any failures.
But the first boot love to fail in 2960x  and this model 2960X-48LPS-L

I learned something new about how to upgrade and the stacked 2960x series switches with bin file.
1 copy tftp://192.168.1.2/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin flash1:
2 copy tftp://192.168.1.2/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin flash2:
3 copy tftp://192.168.1.2/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin flash3:

verify /md5 flash1:c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin

verify /md5 flash2:c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin

verify /md5 flash3:c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin

boot system switch all flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin.
show boot
wr
reload

[paul driver]

Hello
try:
no boot system
boot system flash:/2960x-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5.bin
end

wr

[tanner.zaitt]

Hi,
No boot doesn't help.

After every one upgrade few devices from series 2960x 24 and 48x ports versions in random principle boot failure after upgrade, but with cold restart they are again up and updated without issues, I didn't find any information about this in release note

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@tanner.zaitt wrote:
The old ios is 15.0.2-EX5.
The new ios is 15.2.7E3 MD.

---

Wait, did you issue the "reload" command or did you do a COLD REBOOT?

[tanner.zaitt]

Hello Leo, nice to see you.

No, first I run these commands:
copy tftp://10.152.161.18/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin flash:
verify /md5 flash:c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
show boot
Conf t
boot system flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
exit
show boot
copy run start....
reload

And I wait 15 minutes, and the switch never starts again, and I have to go to the Datacenter to unplug and plug the power supply cables and for this procedure, I call Cold restart.

[Leo Laohoo]

If you have access to the stack, console into the stack and post the entire boot-up process.  We want to see what the stack is doing during bootup. 

[tanner.zaitt]

Hello Leo, could you confirm that my commands are correct for the C2960X stand-alone and stack switches upgrade?

For stacked switches.
sw#copy tftp://192.168.0.2/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin flash:/
sw#verify /md5 flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
sw#show switch
sw#show file systems
sw#dir flash:
sw#dir flash3:
sw#copy flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin flash2:/
sw#copy flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin flash1:/
sw#dir flash1:
s#dir flash2:
sw#verify /md5 flash1:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
sw#verify /md5 flash2:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
sw#conf t
sw(config)#boot system switch all flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
sw(config)#do wr
sw(config)#do show boot
sw(config)#do reload

For stand-alone:
sw#copy tftp://192.168.0.2/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin flash:/
sw#verify /md5 flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
sw#conf t
sw(config)#boot system flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
sw(config)#do wr
sw(config)#do show boot
sw(config)#do reload

What is the difference between flash: and flash:/ and what is correct?
Is it true for stand-alone the command is boot system flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
and for stacked the command is boot system switch all flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin

And when we use the alternatives:
boot system switch 1 flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
boot system switch 2 flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
boot system switch 3 flash:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin

boot system switch 1 flash1:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
boot system switch 2 flash2:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin
boot system switch 3 flash3:/c2960x-universalk9-mz.152-7.E3.bin

How is the best safe way to upgrade stacked switches?

Thank you in advance.

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@tanner.zaitt wrote:

How is the best safe way to upgrade stacked switches?

---

archive download-sw /imageonly tftp://192.168.0.2/filename.TAR

Whether it is a single unit or a stack of switches, the "archive download-sw" command is THE best/recommended command to upgrade the firmware.  

[balaji.bandi]

we generally do standard proceedure.

Make sure you read the target release notes and understand the caveats.

backup the config out of the box

prepared for any failure backup plan to restore back

in the change and maintenance window :

1. Download the targeted image first.
2-Copy the image to the stack master via TFTP or USB flash drive, note that you can check the MD5 checksum of this image using the following command :
verify/md5 flash: <image file> , it should match this checksum.
3-copy the image on the other unit members of your stack.
"copy flash:<image name> flash2:" copy flash:<image name> and so on...
4-we will need to change the boot system configuration in order to point to the targeted image.
-no boot system
-do wr
-boot system switch all flash: image name
-do wr
5- New configuration is pointing to the new image by entering the following command :
show boot system
6- Reload the stack